It’s Up To Us Now – Part 14

India needs political leadership of the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Lee Kuan Yew. From that leadership will flow policy changes that we need as a country. The hard and soft foundations of a nation has to be engineered. The soft foundation encompasses national interest, the elimination of corruption, the elimination of artificially created divisions of castes and communities (which are today being used as ‘vote banks’), the creation of a truly modern education system, real economic, personal and political freedom, efficient markets, and so on.

The hard foundation is about infrastructure that will ensure the urbanisation of India: modern high-speed nationwide rail network, sufficient power generation capacity to meet the needs of an industrializing economy, ubiquitous affordable broadband access, efficient ports and airports, etc.

. See page 8 for a list of suggestions. One suggestion that caught my eye was to provide legislation under which citizens can charge public officials (bureaucrats and/or politicians) under civil law on the grounds of incompetence or inability to provide quality public service. Since the evidence required for conviction is not as stringent as that required to prove criminality, judicial resolution should be quicker. Even though the corresponding punishment (such as a demotion or job termination) is lighter, the accompanying social and political publicity should serve as additional deterrent. The hope is that even a lighter enforcement of accountability of this kind would produce desirable change.
Also see,http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/PSGLP/0,,contentMDK:21401904~pagePK:64156158~piPK:64152884~theSitePK:461606,00.html